System Health Monitor

Abstract

Described are computer-based methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, for system health monitoring. Backup set metadata is received, wherein the backup set metadata comprises information about backup data sets that are received by a backup storage system. One or more processes that process the backup set metadata through an emulated processing flow path are executed, wherein the one or more processes are also implemented in the backup storage system. Two or more potential processing states are determined within the emulated processing flow path. A reason code is determined for each backup set metadata entry of the backup set metadata indicative of a reason that the backup set metadata entry is in a processing state of the two or more potential processing states. A problem with the manner in which the backup set metadata is flowing through the emulated processing flow path is identified based on the reason codes.

Description

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application relates to and is assigned to the same entity as the co-pending application identified by Attorney Docket No. SEP-016B, entitled “System Health Monitor,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. TBD, filed on Sep. 29, 2010, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates generally to computer-based methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, for system health monitoring, including monitoring, analyzing, reporting, and predicting aspects of the system.BACKGROUND[0003]When developing complex or large-scale systems, the various components of the system are often assigned to different teams within a company (or even across multiple companies). Advantageously, a company can best utilize its resources by allowing each team to focus on a particular aspect of the system. The teams can become “experts” in their respective compon...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0025]The techniques, which include both methods and apparatuses, described herein can provide one or more of the following advantages. An emulating computing device can implement the desired functionality of computing device, allowing the health of the emulating computing device to be monitored such that the health of the emulating computing device will directly correlate with the health of the actual computing device. Metadata (e.g., which includes information about data processed by the computing device) is processed by the emulating computing device in the same manner (either identically or partially) such that health monitoring statistics of the emulating computing device are indicative of health statistics of the computing device. The emulating computing device can use the metadata to learn about the different data processed by the computing device, such as the size of the data sets, the type of the data sets, and any other information about the data. Further, the metadata can be processed through an emulated processing flow path and grouped into processing states. The metadata can be assigned reason codes to identify why groups of the metadata are in particular processing states. Thresholds can be intelligently set to identify problems processing the data corresponding to the metadata at a particular processing state. The emulating computing device can detect problems with both the computing device itself as well as how the up environment is configured.

Problems solved by technology

Emulating includes identifying, by the emulating computing device, a problem with the manner in which the backup set metadata is flowing through the emulated processing flow path based on the reason codes.

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